If you obtained your occupational therapy license in the United Kingdom, you will need to complete ongoing continuing professional development in order to maintain your license. To help, I’m going to walk you through the steps I take to maintain my own occupational therapy license (and easily find professional development education activities).
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Step 1: Look up your OT license registration.
To begin the process, I always double-check that my license is displaying correctly. You can check your registration with the UK Health & Care Professions Council here.
Step 2: Confirm the United Kingdom OT continuing professional development requirements.
It’s always good to double check for any updates to your 2025 renewal cycle. (One year, I completed ALL of my state of Nebraska requirements only to find out that they were waived due to COVID. 😭)
To get you going, here is the information I found with links to where I found it.
Here are the basic OT continuing professional development requirements in the UK:
Occupational Therapists must be registered with the Health & Care Professions Council to work in the United Kingdom.
Attest to ongoing CDP at time of registration renewal – 31 October of odd years.
Next UK OT renewal due 31 Oct 2025!
How many hours are required?
- Occupational therapists in the United Kingdom are not required to complete a specific number of professional development hours. Rather, OTs are expected to engage in professional development activities on an ongoing basis to improve their practice.
- You may be audited by the Council to demonstrate some of your development, so keep a record of the CPD activities you engage in and how they improve your practice and learning.
- The HCPC offers some helpful guidance for recording CPD.
Verify here: UK Health & Care Professions Council website
Here are the occupational therapy continuing professional development requirements in the UK:
These were copied from the Health & Care Professions Council Information for Registrants
Continuing Professional Development and your Registration
Section 3 – About the CPD standards
CPD is linked to registration, so you need to meet our CPD standards to stay registered. There are five CPD standards. A registrant must:
1. maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities
What the standard means:
- You need to carry out regular CPD activities – you can find examples of these in appendix 1.
- You need to keep a record of what you do in whatever way is most convenient for you.
- You need to add to your record on a ongoing basis. If you are audited, we will be interested in what you have done over the previous two years (the length of each registration cycle).
- Your record needs to be a true reflection of the activities that you have carried out.
2. demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice
What the standard means:
- Your CPD must include a mixture of different types of learning.
- Your CPD must relate to your registration and practice as a health and care professional.
3. seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
What the standard means:
- You should aim for your CPD to improve the way you work.
- If you were audited, we would ask you to tell us about some of the activities you have carried out, what you learnt and how this has improved your practice.
4. seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user
What the standard means:
- You should aim for your CPD to benefit your service users.
- If you were audited, we would ask you to tell us about some of the activities you have carried out, what you learnt and how this has benefited your service users.
5. upon request, present a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) explaining how they have met the Standards for CPD
What the standard means:
- You only need to meet this standard if you are one of the registrants picked as part of a random sample for audit.
- You need to take part in the audit by sending us a CPD profile containing information and evidence about how you have met the standards.
- The CPD profile must be your own work.
See more detailed information about meeting these standards in Section 4 of the HCPC Information for Registrants.
Step 3: Find professional development activities that meet your learning goals (discounts below)!
Ok, now that you know your requirements, it is time to start identifying activities that meet your professional learning goals! There are of course a lot of options out there, but we hope you consider checking out the courses offered by OT Potential.
Do OT Potential courses count toward the continuing professional development required to renew my practice certificate?
Yes! OT Potential courses and resources can help you meet some of your required continuing professional development needs, depending on your specific learning goals, client population, and setting.
Search CPD courses by topic here!
Another option is to attend one of our live webinar courses to interact with guest experts and other OT professionals.
You can also find educational materials relating to the latest OT research on the OT Potential Blog!
Where can UK OT professionals get the best deals on Continuing Professional Development?
At OT Potential, our courses are all built around helping you get new evidence into practice.
But, what good is evidence-based practice, if you are not reimbursed appropriately for it? Our local associations do SUCH important advocacy work, when it comes to reimbursement and scope of practice. That’s why we’ve made it part of our mission to support these associations.
So, we have this win-win proposition for you. Join OT Potential using the promo code “UnitedKingdom” to receive a 15% discount—and we’ll donate 15% of your order to The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT).
👍 Price of OT Potential with your United Kingdom discount = $84.15 (Reg $99)
🎉 Donation amount to RCOT = $12.62
And, the best part is if you decide to renew, it will be at your discounted price. AND, we’ll make another donation to RCOT.
This is one of the cheapest ways to earn all of your required United Kingdom OT CPDs, and you can feel good doing it because you are giving back to your national association ❤️.
Step 4: Renew your practice certificate. 🎉
Ok, now it’s time for the big moment.
You can renew your registration online.
The registration window for OTs in the UK is from August 1 – October 31 of odd years.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you found this post helpful!
As you can tell, I am a continuing education nerd 🤓, so if you have any other questions about continuing professional development and your United Kingdom OT registration renewal, just ask me the comments!
Ok! Ready to try OT Potential?
Get 15% off + 15% goes to support RCOT.
Learn more, then use promo code: UnitedKingdom